3D-printed porous carbon lattice and MnO2-deposition for all-3D-printed asymmetric supercapacitors with high areal energy and power densities

Date
March 20, 2022

Assembling smart grids is an effective way of using renewable energy efficiently. Supercapacitors, which can rapidly charge/discharge electricity, play an important role in smart grids, and the market size has continued growing with a compound annual growth rate above 20%. Thick electrodes can reduce the ratio of inactive components in the overall cell, while simultaneously improving energy and power densities. However, thick electrodes induce a longer ion diffusion pathway, and capacitance drops dramatically after a certain thickness. In order to overcome this problem, an electrode can be designed with macropores to enable effective ion pathways. 3D printing technology has made remarkable advances in recent years and can be applied to energy storage devices. However, it is still challenging to make a precise design by using direct ink writing, one of the most popular 3D printing technology, due to its low resolution. On the other hand, stereolithography-type 3D printers, which use photo-curing resin, can be inexpensive (<$300) and have the ability to make precise designs with high resolution (~50 um). In this research, we combine a stereolithography-type 3D printer and a simple gas activation process to fabricate porous 3D carbon lattices with ~50 um macropores and ~2 nm micropores. Furthermore, by electrodeposition of manganese oxide on the 3D carbon lattices, we aim to improve the specific capacitance. Finally, we make an all-3D-printed asymmetric 1.8 V supercapacitor by combining two different 3D carbon lattices (Fig. 1a), demonstrating a maximum energy density of 0.808 mWh cm–2 at a power density of 2.48 mW cm–2. Compared with previous thick-electrode supercapacitors, the achieved values are one of the highest areal energy and power densities to date (Fig. 1b).
<b>Fig. 1</b> (a) Schematic illustration of preparation processes of all-3D-printed asymmetric supercapacitors. (b) Ragone plot of the all-3D-printed supercapacitor along with high-mass-loading electrodes reported so far.

Fig. 1 (a) Schematic illustration of preparation processes of all-3D-printed asymmetric supercapacitors. (b) Ragone plot of the all-3D-printed supercapacitor along with high-mass-loading electrodes reported so far.


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